REBOOTS, SPINOFFS & MORE
PERRY MASON
Premiere TBA, HBO
REMEMBER PERRY MASON, the ethical defense lawyer embodied by Raymond Burr on CBS’s 1957–66 courtroom drama (and 26 TV movies)? Let’s just say he got upstanding with age. As a younger man, “he wasn’t above playing fast and loose with evidence if he was convinced his client was innocent,” says Rolin Jones, an executive producer of this prequel starring The Americans’ Matthew Rhys. Fellow exec producer Ron Fitzgerald explains, “Our Mason is more of a gritty fixer than a polished lawyer; more Bogart than Burr.”
In Depression-era L.A.—resilient thanks to the film and oil businesses—Mason struggles to move past his experience fighting in World War I. “Perry is fractured and doing his best to avoid anything that would make him look inward,” Jones says. A heartbreaking incident provides a distraction he needs. At Christmastime, a young couple’s child is kidnapped, leading to Mason’s first big case. Says Jones, “Things go bad from there on out.”
HBO’s take hews closely in gritty tone to the early novels) and P.I. Paul Drake (Chris Chalk, ); new faces in Mason’s world include mentor E.B. Jonathan (John Lithgow) and Sister Alice (Tatiana Maslany, ), a nun who wields influence in the city.
